Guangzhou, Li Na, & Lili

Outside of the tennis world, very few in the west are familiar with Francesca Schiavone and Li Na. And yet, Li Na's victory tonight over Schiavone in the French Open final not only has given China their first grand slam champion, it may very well have been the most watched tennis match in history. Some are estimating that nearly half of the 1.4 billion in China were watching; that figure includes two Americans in Guangzhou (not Malia, who was more interested in a snack). That's the huge impact a nation that is 1/5th of the globe can have on statistics. Development economists at the UNDP & World Bank are also familiar with how China can skew statistics. China's phenomenal rise out of poverty since 1978 has forced economists to always measure human development two ways.............including China and excluding China. The former makes the world look pretty doggone good! The latter? So-so. Measurements with the phrase "(excl. China)" are almost always requested to get an accurate picture on how the rest of the world looks.

We've arrived in Guangzhou, and we are impressed. Southern China is booming, and this city (like Hong Kong to come) is busy & glowing. We arrived late Friday night with a few of the families with whom we had met in Beijing. We all are staying at the White Swan hotel on Shamian island. The White Swan is constantly frequented by American families adopting in China because of its proximity to the American consulate, which handles all U.S. related paperwork for Chinese adoptions. There were at least 20-25 American families at breakfast the next morning, from all over the country. The hotel is extremely nice; before arrival we were ready to go home, but now we are joking about asking for "an extra week". :)

We had wrapped up Changsha nicely on Thursday & Friday. The Hunan provincial paperwork was all done, and we were just enjoying the sites. Dianne felt a little under the weather on Thursday, so Marc headed out to Orange Island and took a little tour to see the new "Young Mao" monument where he was one American among 400 Chinese and a big hit with the locals. After getting a joking "Mao Tse Tung" thumbs up from one of them in the group, Marc's reply (thought of earlier) of "Deng Xiao Peng" with a thumbs up got a good number of laughs. In China, I guess you gotta figure out how to criticize Mao without criticizing Mao. On Friday we took one last long walk around Changsha, packed, and headed out to the airport.

If you've read about traffic in China, you will not be surprised to learn that we had a wreck on the way to our flight. In America, this is a big deal. It's rare, stressful, you exchange insurance, your rates go up, and you are glad everyone is ok. Not so China. Here they drive like they walk. No space, bumping, no rules. Before the accident, rush hour traffic leaving the city literally took over an incoming lane of traffic. Our guide pointed out how there was now one outbound lane ON THE OTHER SIDE of the yellow line. Then we got rear ended. The driver who hit us made a monetary offer, which was accepted. And off we went. No big deal in China.

On the flight to Guangzhou we met a doctor who told us that the lion's share of the funding for cleft lip / palate surgery in the provinces comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. I had been wondering who these groups were that traveled around the country doing this repair work in areas that can not afford it. It's no surprise to learn that the Gates foundation and its heavy emphasis on health & education would be putting its resources there.

Saturday was spent having breakfast at the White Swan alongside the Pearl river, working on U.S. consulate paperwork, and taking Malia to her exit medical exam (all thumbs up!). The rest of the week will primarily be sightseeing in Guangzhou (Canton tower, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial, Baiyun mountain) before getting Malia's visa to travel home to the U.S. on Wednesday and heading for Hong Kong on Thursday.

Malia's Chinese name is "Huai Xuli". The Huai last name comes from "Huaihua", the hometown of her orphange. The "Xu" comes from "Xupu county", where she was found. Li means "beautiful", and we've begun calling her "Lili"........her nickname in Huaihua........as well as "Tiger Lilly", given that she was born in the year of the Tiger. Watching Li Na win in Paris for China with your daughter "Lili" in China is not surprisingly a very beautiful thing.